Advocacy

The California Association of Resource Conservation Districts (CARCD) advocates for RCDs at a statewide level to help raise their visibility amongst partners and legislators, to secure new sources of funding for capacity building and on-the-ground projects, and to help give voice to California's critical conservation issues.

CARCD Supports Proposition 3

Proposition 3, the Water Supply and Water Quality Act of 2018, is a statewide water bond measure that will appear on the November 6th statewide ballot. The bond measure is supported by a wide variety of organizations, including CARCD, California Farm Bureau Federation, Planning and Conservation League, the Association of California Water Agencies, California Chamber of Commerce, Community Water Center, and hundreds of other organizations. We strongly urge you to vote YES on 3!

To learn more about the measure or get involved in the campaign, please visit www.waterbond.org and follow Prop 3 on twitter @CAWaterBond. You can also contact the campaign at Endorse.waterbond@gmail.com.

Other Legislative News

In partnership with Conservation Strategy Group (CSG), a lobbying firm based in Sacramento, one of CARCD’s principal goals in the 2018 legislative season was to promote policy solutions that would enable RCDs to do more in the areas of forest health and fire resilience.

CSG shared the following update about a sweeping package of legislation that Governor Brown signed in September 2018 to help California prevent and recover from catastrophic wildfires:

Expedites small landowner incentives and projects to reduce excess fuel and remove dead and dying trees and chaparral.

Facilitates access to property to carry out projects to improve overall forest health and resistance to wildfires.

Adds a rigorous standard for the California Public Utilities Commission to oversee the allocation of utility wildfire costs and expenses, including consideration of climate change impacts.

Authorizes a financing mechanism so utilities can spread out wildfire costs to minimize impacts to ratepayers.

Adds worker protections and prohibits utilities from charging their customers for executive compensation.

The Governor stated that, “Wildfires in California aren’t going away, and we have to do everything possible to prevent them. This bill is complex and requires investment – but it’s absolutely necessary.”

Governor Brown also issued an Executive Order in May to improve the health of the state’s forests and help mitigate the threats associated with potential destruction. The impacts of wildfire can be deadly and have the potential to hinder the state’s progress towards its climate goals from the associated carbon emissions. Forests serve as the state’s largest land-based carbon sink, drawing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees and shrubs and in forest soils. But even a single wildfire can immediately cancel all those benefits.